La battaglia del dottor Semmelweis

This film tells a beautiful story with using a few clichés that make this movie only good. It's the kind of film you have probably watched several times, but I think it's worth watching, because few movies give you the joy this one has. The acting performances are great except for the little daughter. I could not understand half of what she said. It's well-shot, well-edited, the production and costume design is amazing. Lajos Koltai proves that he is a good director, but this film is kind of monotonous, slow. It can be boring ometimes and it's very predictable. Overall the film is good, but it could've been a lot better.

My students and I watched this movie today. They liked it a lot, and we talked about it for a long time afterwards, it seemed that it piqued their interest. The story is exciting, sometimes too much so naturalistic. Struggle and tragedies accompanied the film, presenting the XIX. Health condition of the century. I didn't know many of the actors, but they all gave excellent performances. The young actor who played Semmelweis, Vecsey H. Miklós, created a convincing, real doctor character. Lajos Koltay's excellent direction also contributed to the experience. The creators can be rightfully proud. I hope the film gets international recognition.

I'm quite disappointed to be honest. The technical side of the movie is totally ok. A little bit claustrophobic for me as basically there are no open spaces in the movie but still technically the film is ok.

The real downside is the storyline itself. Basically nothing was as it's in the movie. The whole austrian-hungarian rivalry is a lie. Klein did not even exist. As such the whole laundry scandal is made up too. Emma is fictional too just as the espionage line. The autopsy of Kolletschka wasn't preformed by Semmelweis as he wasn't even in the country at the time of Kolletschka's death. Semmelweis only studied the notes of the autopsy. As such it couldn't not be a scandal.

If you watch the movie you just see a brainless propaganda movie. It's an absolute disgrace that wants you to think that mean austrians mistreated a hungarian genius just because his nationality. It's not better than those stupid soviet heroic movies.

Too bad that the filmmakers made a cheap and dumb propaganda movie instead of a historically accurate objective adaptation. Semmelweis should deserve more than that.

The unbreakable element makes a person great, a touching true story based on reality, the image and reality are fascinating. In Hungary today, Semmelweis is a real historical person, I think he portrayed a big problem of the time very well. Check out! In this story, the person is very sympathetic, because if he has a family, he thinks about the big problems and questions of the past, which he could have fixed in a short time with today's knowledge. Great knowledge and thinking can fix these problems, and fortunately it was once again a Hungarian person who was able to fix this, despite the many enemies and skepticism, things were fixed even at that time!

I've got to admit, overall, there were parts of the movie that really worked for me. The cinematography, the original score, visual effects, costume design, locations, set planning, even the furniture-all of it was seriously well done. The color palette and scene composition were beautiful, and the settings felt authentic and thoughtfully put together. It really gave off a strong, believable vibe of the era.

As for the acting... aside from a few seasoned standouts like László Gálffi, Lajos Kovács, Anna György, and maybe Ferenc Elek, it felt a bit shaky. Semmelweis himself came across as overacted and a bit immature. The younger cast members either overdid it or lacked presence. Makes you wonder if that's on the director or maybe the casting choices?

Costume design deserves another shout-out-it was excellent. The cinematography really helped highlight the period details in the sets and wardrobe.

That said, it's kind of a shame that the film is overwhelmed by melodramatic characters and lines. The key scenes are sometimes way too basic, or they hinge on overly dramatic "quotes" that just don't land.

Also, Semmelweis is constantly sweating-like, drenched. I'm not quite sure why that choice was made. Maybe there's a deeper meaning behind it, but if there is, it went over my head.